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Week commencing 3rd July – tour to the west continues.

Day 4 – Thursday – Skipton & Burnley…

A departure from our digs in Thornley and a run over to Skipton this morning, where it was good to meet Tom, for work on his fairly new acquisition of a ‘98 MGF 1.8 mpi. Since buying the car 4 months ago he’s done a fair few miles and been loving it. Knowing that the cambelt service was due he asked us to come over and carry this out for him and also to do a preemptive head gasket replacement as he just wanted peace of mind and worry free motoring.

It’s actually a good thing that he did, as he would have been having a spot of bother sooner or later. On checking which gasket was fitted, we initially thought it was an elastomer, as there wasn’t a tab sticking out between the block and the head, but when we removed the cylinder head, it was in fact an MLS gasket, but the saver-shim hadn’t been fitted.

At some stage in the past a fairly large amount of the hideous k-seal had been added. The expansion tank was full of it. The inlet manifold was blocked and the return hoses were solid with the stuff, and not the usual thick gungey stuff, it was dried out. So all of these were cleared out, hoses removed then blown and flushed through, using various methods. Poor car!

All missing gaskets and bolts replaced and everything refitted. Car ran up to temperature and behaving as it should.

Tom only had one key fob with the car so a replacement one of these were programmed for him. Thanks to Tom for the cuppas and for the forecast not being as it was supposed to be and dodged the rain.

We now over in Burnley for the night, ready for tomorrow. Good to have time for a walk along the canal. – https://ift.tt/QndGZh7